The Lorax Dinner

For Earth day we did a Lorax themed dinner!  

For our meal we had Seuss Pasta, Humming Fish, Brown Barbaloot Snacks, Truffula Seeds, Mango Orange Sunrise, and Truffula Tree Cupcake. 

Seuss's Whimsical Pasta: Got the idea from this site!
Ingredients:
15oz of pasta
Yellow, Pink, Orange and Blue food coloring
Alfredo Sauce
1/2 bundle of Broccoli
1/2 bundle of Asparagus
1/4 cup of butter
5 teaspoons of salt, separated
2 Chicken Fillets 

Directions:
1. Cut up chicken and begin cooking over medium heat with one teaspoon of salt and olive oil. Stir occasionally until golden brown. 
2. Cup up broccoli and asparagus.
3. Heat butter until melted add broccoli, asparagus and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook for 5-8 minutes (until desired tenderness), Set aside
4. Fill three pots 3/4 full with water.  Add in 1 teaspoon of salt in each pot along with 4-5 drops of a either yellow, pink, or orange.  (each pot is a different color)
5. Once water begins to boil, divide 3 ways and distribute between the pots. Cook for 7 minutes.  It looks really cool BTW.

6. Pour 15oz jar of Alfredo sauce in a bowl and add 6 drops of blue food coloring.
7. Combine chicken, all three colors of pasta, broccoli and asparagus.  
8. Drizzle blue Alfredo sauce over the pasta to look like a river!

Brown Barbaloot Snacks
A mixture of Thin Mints, Teddy Grahams, and Marshmallow

Humming Fish
(just Goldfish crackers)

Truffula Seeds 
(just skittles)

Mango Orange Sunrise (liquored up this version)
Ingredients:
2 Mangos
4 Oranges 
4oz Rum

Truffula Tree Cupcake: 
http://www.meettheshannons.net/2012/03/cupcakes-unofficially-inspired-by-lorax.html
I was really nervous to make these but I thought they turned out great!!!!

I got the idea for this on Pinterest where they used cotton candy but oddly enough, it was pretty hard to find cotton candy… so we had to improvise.  We dyed cotton balls different colors instead- obviously just for looks!  Also, the recipe was vegan so I used different recipes..

Truffula Fluff
Ingredients:
Cotton Balls
2 drops of gel magenta food coloring
1/2 of water

Directions:
1. Combine water and food coloring in a small bowl.
2. Dunk all of the cotton balls in two at a time for 5 seconds.
3. Let dry on a plate for three hours- sporadically blotting with a paper towel.
4. After it has sat for a while, begin to pull apart and fluff out and let sit overnight to dry. 


Cupcake (I found a chocolate cupcake recipe here and adapted it but any recipe will do)
Ingredients:
1/2 a box of devils food cake mix about 7.5 oz
3.9 oz box of dry instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
2 eggs
1/3 cup of canola oil
1/3 cup of hot water
4oz sour cream 

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. In your kitchen aid mixer, combine cake mix, pudding, and chips.
3. Then stir in eggs, oil, and water.
4. Last add the sour cream.  
5. Scoop into the cupcake liners about 3/4 full
6. Bake for about 25 minutes until the top of the cupcake has some bounce to it. 

Frosting (I adapted this recipe)
Ingredients: 
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
4oz of cream cheese, softened
3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of pure mint extract
Green Food Coloring 
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:
1. In an electric mixer, whip the butter until creamy
2. Add in cream cheese, vanilla, and mint extract until combined.
3. Add in 5 drops of food coloring
4. Slowly add in 2 cups of confectioners' sugar
5. Mix on medium until combined. 

Truffula Cupcake Directions: 
Once all parts are completed then assemble.
Pipe the frosting on the cupcake
Insert Chevron Stick in the center
Place Cotton Ball on the stick and ta-da!!

It was all really good!  And SO colorful!!! 

"Unless someone cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better.  It's not." - The Lorax, Dr. Seuss


Interested in this?  Check out our dinner for Groundhog Day!